Musk: 'We Hope The Big Car Companies Do Copy Tesla'

Mark Rogowsky
, ContributorI write about technology, trends and companies on the leading edge.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

It might be cold in Northern Europe this time of year, but Tesla's Elon Musk certainly knows how to heat things up. In a series of town-hall events in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway for Tesla owners and enthusiasts, the maverick CEO answered questions on a wide range of topics from forthcoming vehicle upgrades to the company's future. Musk noted that while his company's 30,000 cars-per-year production rate was currently a rounding error in a 100 million vehicle-per-year industry -- "less than 0.1%" -- eventually the tail will start wagging the dog. "I think the biggest effect that Tesla will have will be to spur the other manufacturers to create create compelling electric cars... to go electric sooner than they otherwise would," he said.

Elon Musk and JB Straubel take questions at a Tesla event in Norway.

In addition, he looked forward to Tesla's new battery "Giga Factory" which Musk said will produce 30 gigawatt-hours worth of batteries per year -- enough for more than 400,000 vehicles. The factory will churn out more lithium-ion batteries than Korea, China and Taiwan produced combined in 2012, Musk said. While he didn't offer a date for the factory's completion, it is intimately tied in with Tesla's third-generation vehicle, likely now due in 2017, for a starting price of about $35,000. But at least one question from the audience had Musk looking much farther into the future: "I can certainly see the potential for Tesla to be making millions of electric cars," he said.

Musk and chief technology officer JB Straubel handled the events together and spent a good deal of time talking sustainability, especially given criticisms that electric vehicles are not so green after all. Musk said he was confused by claims that the manufacturing of electric cars was so much more energy intensive than traditional vehicles given that the "constituent elements" in them were quite similar.

So Tesla went and did its own study and figured out that based on the amount of nickel, cobalt, aluminum, et al. that is used and the energy required to build its batteries, "The energy payback driving the Model S happens quite quick," Straubel said. "How many miles do you have to drive it? ... Less than 10,000." He added that Tesla plans on publishing a white paper in the near future detailing its analysis, which will break down all the energy input and output between a Model S and a conventional vehicle.

But the conversations weren't just about sustainability. Tesla continued to show that it was redefining auto manufacturing in several ways that were distinct from the powertrain as well. A major software update is coming soon that will allow more customization of the vehicle's suspension height, for example. While a change was originally made after three high-profile vehicle fires, the update will give do more than just restore some functionality that was removed for safety concerns. It will, for example, allow for manual adjustment in snowy conditions or for control over the speed at which the suspension gets lowered as a preference. (It's worth noting that there have been no reports of Tesla vehicles catching fires in the past 3 months even as the number of vehicles on the road has increased by roughly 6,000.)

Musk also suggested a future upgrade to the vehicle's interior. "The seats should be more comfortable," he noted, suggesting he hoped current owners would be able to pay a small fee to get the better seating that is being put into new production vehicles shortly. Perhaps the most significant upgrade, though, will be to the Supercharger network. The events were conducted in Europe where Musk and Straubel promised 100 chargers by year end and nearly pan-European travel by then as well. But in the U.S. the network has also been expanding rapidly.

When someone asked about a specific location, Musk said Tesla's plan was simple: "The goal we want to reach: you never have to worry about it ever. We’ll get that as fast as we can." Straubel added: "It’s not something where we plan to finish it [anytime soon.] It’s going to keep getting better and better over time. We’ll keep investing in it... for as long as it makes sense." Finally, Musk said the battery swapping system the company showed off last summer was nearly ready for rollout in California and that future locations would be determined by how popular it was there.

Clearly, the company has a lot of initiatives and Musk was cautious about Tesla biting off too much at once. "The biggest challenge for Tesla is trying to figure out focus," he said. "We're a small company... If we want to add something to the plate, then something else has got to come off. The most critical thing is ensuring we make super-reliable electric cars that can go wherever people want. That’s what we’re focused on."

But that focus doesn't mean Tesla isn't looking at advanced technologies. While Musk believes the true self-driving car is far off. "It’s going to be a long time before one can get into a car, fall asleep and wake up at your destination," he said, Musk does believe Tesla will likely be first with what he's calling an "autopilot." This would be akin to the system on an airplane where almost all the work could be done by a computerized driver, but the human would be ready to take over. Tesla is trying to identify exactly what sensors and hardware it needs so it can plan to build those in as soon as possible. That way it can take the time to work on the software, secure in the knowledge it has the right platform to deploy it on.

That kind of thinking is pretty radical for the auto industry and is pretty unlikely to be copied in Detroit, Japan or Korea anytime soon. But when it comes to electrification, Musk seems genuine in his hope that the success of Tesla yields plenty of copycats. "We hope the big car companies do copy Tesla. When you consider what is the fundamental good Tesla will achieve, it's getting the rest of the car industry to move toward sustainable transport faster. I don’t know why they’re taking so long."